First in a series about a designer—and a handsome handyman–tackling fixer upper homes and mysterious murders. A must-read for lovers of HGTV’s home renovation shows.

To Avery Baker, the idea of preparing her aunt’s crumbling and cluttered home for sale is overwhelming. So when someone offers to buy the place as is, Avery’s relieved. Until she learns it’s worth more than she thought–that is, with a few repairs here and there…

With help from hunky handyman Derek Ellis, Avery starts learning the ABC’s of DIY. But when a designer-turned-renovator finds clues that lead to a missing local professor and then her own life is threatened, Avery wonders if she can finish the house—without getting finished off in the process.

Gabby St. Claire dropped out of school on her way to completing a degree in forensic science. Instead, she did the next best thing: she started her own crime scene cleaning business. When a routine cleaning job uncovers a murder weapon the police overlooked, she realizes that the wrong person is in jail. But the owner of the weapon is willing to do anything to keep Gabby quiet. With the help of her neighbor, Riley Thomas, Gabby plays detective. But can Riley help her before another murder occurs?

Sierra is used to fighting for the lives of innocent creatures. But when a killer puts the lives of her own cats on the line, her crusade becomes personal.

Animal rights activist Sierra Nakamura never expected to stumble upon the dead body of a coworker while out filming a project. She definitely never expected to get involved in the investigation. But when someone threatens to kill her cats unless she hands over the “information,” she becomes more bristly than an angry feline. Making matters worse is the fact that her cats–and the investigation–are driving a wedge between her and her boyfriend Chad.

With every answer she uncovers, old hurts rise to the surface and test her beliefs. Saving her cats just might mean ruining everything else in her life. In the fight for survival, one thing is certain: It’s either pounce or be pounced.

Brett Kavanaugh is a tattoo artist and owner of an elite tattoo parlor in Las Vegas. When a girl makes an appointment for a tattoo of the name of her fiancé embedded in a heart, Brett takes the job but the girl never shows. The next thing Brett knows, the police are looking for her client, and the name she wanted on the tattoo isn’t her fiancé’s…

From Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author Elaine Viets—the thrilling mystery series about one woman trying to make a living… while other people are making a killing.

Helen Hawthorne had a high-finance job, a beautiful home—and a good-for-nothing husband she caught in the act with their neighbor. But when she tried to divorce the bum, the judge decided that Helen had to pay—and Helen decided the only way to keep her dignity would be to defy the courts, refuse to pay, and run for it.

Now hiding out in Fort Lauderdale, Helen is working as a lowly sales clerk at a high-fashion boutique. But keeping out of trouble proves difficult when she discovers the manager is running her own side business stealing from the store and selling drugs to customers.

Helen’s discomfort is short lived when the felonious fashionista suddenly goes on vacation—and turns up dead in the water. In desperate need of cash, Helen decides to try and find out who killed the woman for an offered reward.

But she soon uncovers even more nefarious goings-on that put her new career—and her new life—in mortal danger…

It’s a day like any other for Deuce Winters, a stay-at-home dad in sleepy Rose Petal, Texas, where he and his three-year-old daughter Carly are making their weekly trip to the grocery store. But the discovery of a dead body in his mini-van quickly throws his quiet life into disarray. In a town where gossip spreads faster than a brush fire in July, it doesn’t help that the victim ruined Deuce’s high school football career and married his ex-girlfriend. . .

As the number one suspect in the court of public opinion, Deuce is determined to clear his name, with a little help from his wife Julianne, a high-powered attorney who lovingly refers to him as her “househusband.” His search for the killer leads him to a business plan gone awry and a gaggle of jilted lovers. All the while, he’ll have to contend with a diminutive but feisty detective, the ruthless preschool PTA, and more than his fair share of Texas-sized hairdos–not to mention the laundry. . .

After a brutal mugging in Manhattan leaves him with a broken arm and fractured skull, insurance investigator Jeff Resnick reluctantly agrees to recover at the home of his estranged half brother, Richard. At first, Jeff believes his graphic nightmares of a slaughtered buck are just the workings of his traumatized mind. But when a local banker is found in the same condition, Jeff believes the attack has left him with a sixth sense–an ability to witness murder before it happens. Piecing together clues he saw in his visions, Jeff attempts to solve the crime. His brother Richard is skeptical, but unsettling developments begin to forge a tentative bond. Soon, things that couldnt be explained by premonition come to light, and Jeff finds himself probing into dangerous secrets that touch his own traumatic past in wintry Buffalo–and the killer is ready to eliminate Jeffs visions permanently.

First in the Edgar Award–winning series “that never disappoints,” featuring the forensic anthropologist known as the Skeleton Detective (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

When anthropology professor Gideon Oliver is offered a teaching fellowship at US military bases in Germany, Sicily, Spain, and Holland, he wastes no time accepting. Stimulating courses to teach, a decent stipend, all expenses paid, plenty of interesting European travel . . . What’s not to like?

It does not take him long to find out. On his first night, he is forced to fend off two desperate, black‑clad men who have invaded his Heidelberg hotel room with intent to kill. And then there are a few trivial details that the recruiting agency forgot to mention—such as the fact that the two previous holders of the fellowship both met with mysterious ends.

From there, it is all downhill. Gideon finds himself the target in an unfamiliar game for which no one has bothered to give him the rules. What he does have is his own considerable intellect and his remarkable forensic skills. He will need them, for he is playing for some fairly high stakes: the security of Western Europe.

Remembering nothing from the day before, crotchety octogenarian Paul Jacobson must become an amateur sleuth to clear himself as a murder suspect when he finds a dead body in the trash chute of a retirement home. As Paul’s snooping and short-term memory loss get him in trouble with the local police, his new friends and granddaughter Jennifer help him solve an expanding list of crimes. Paul finds romance as he struggles to escape a murderer intent on a repeat performance.

Elliot Freed is beyond happy when legendary comics Lillis & Townes appear at his refurbished all-comedy theater. But when insinuations arise that the duo were involved in a decades-old Hollywood murder, Elliot sets out to prove the rumors wrong.

Hey hey my Cozy Companions! I hope that you are having an AMAZING day! I am super glad that April is over. I don’t know about you guys, but April was an extremely hard month for me. I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t get motivated, I just needed May to start so that I felt like the slate was clean! I read a whopping four books this month! Three of which were WONDERFUL! Let me know what you read this month down below or if you’ve read these books and what you thought of them!

The first book that I read this month was a buddy read with Kayla from @literatureads! She is one of the sweetest people I have met from Booktube and Twitter. It was her idea to start this series together!

This book follows Rita Lucero. She is trying to start her life over, but there is one little thing holding her back. Her soon-to-be ex-husband refuses to sign the divorce papers even though he is the one that left her.

Rita hops on a plan from Arizona and flies to New Orleans willing to camp out in his reception area of his bakery until he signs the papers. This quick trip leaves Rita with the dead body of her ex-husband, a black lined bakery, and maybe becoming the next murder victim.

This was a really fun book to read. I loved the characters, the plot ran smoothly, and the whodunit was very well done. Overall this book has made me want to continue the series!

This book was April’s Cozy Mystery Bookclub Pick! This was such a fun series to start! If you want the complete book talk with the bookclub click here!

Pepper Reece is finally happy with her life. She left her cheating husband, left a well-paying job, and bought up the local Spice Shop in the heart of Seattle’s Pike Place Market!

The only thing Pepper has to worry about is getting her newest designs done for the shop. Should she stick with the old design that is true and loved? Or should she strike out on her own and put more of herself into the design of her new shop?

These thoughts are being put on hold however when a presumed homeless man is found dead in the front of Pepper’s shop with a paper cup with her logo on it near the body. The police show up, including her bike riding cop ex-husband.

Chaos ensues when one of Pepper’s employees is arrested for the murder of the unknown man. Will Pepper be able to keep her store afloat, find out who the mysterious man is, and save her coworker from prison? You’ll just have to read to find out!

Boy was I wrong. This book was not to my taste at all. I rated it a 2/5 stars on Goodreads. I actually can’t wait until I unhaul this book.

I really thought that this was going to have a better mystery, a better plot, and more character development.

Ellie Mack is the perfect child. Perfect grades. Gorgeous. Everything was coming her way. Until she goes missing. The police believe that she has runaway.

This story is broken up into multiple points of view, which is very confusing as you are reading. You follow Laurel, Ellie’s mother, Ellie, and others. I don’t want to give away too much information or it will spoil the book for you.

There are many parts in this book that were triggers for me and made me feel really uncomfortable. I got this book through my Book of The Month Club pick. This is something that I will not be re-reading again.

As I stated at the beginning of this blog, I had a pretty rough month in April. I live in Oklahoma and am a teacher. There was a walkout for two weeks due to the fight for more funding in our classrooms and into education. I won’t get into politics with anyone, just know that children are my heart and I want the best for them!

You would think that with two weeks off that I would have devoured as many books as possible. I would have thought so too. That however wasn’t the case. I was broken-hearted, I believe. I couldn’t find the energy to read or to do much of anything.

I went and protested quite a few times during the walkout, twice in Oklahoma City. But I couldn’t bring myself to do much of anything. I needed to get out of this funk. I wanted to read a book that would help bounce me back!

This is when I saw this bright yellow cover that made me smile. Especially with its quirky and out of the norm title! I laughed and couldn’t stop smiling, so I put the book in the Amazon cart with The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**K, which I am currently reading.

This book really helped me see everything going on in the world in a different way. I needed to let myself become better. I needed to stop holding myself back. If you really want to see my reaction on this mind-blowing book watch this video!

So, that was my reading month for April. It wasn’t as extensive as the first three months of 2018, but I am still proud of everything that I read. All of them, good or bad, helped shape me into my thoughts of today.

I hope that you have an amazing reading month in May! What are you planning on reading in May? I’m horrible at TBRs! Haha!

I have recently revamped my Cozy Mystery Rating System. There are just some things that are required when there is a Cozy being read. I have created this Rating System, if you will. It consists of five main categories: Characters, The Whodunit, Relationships, Series, and Punniness. Each of these are rated with 1-4 Cleo The Cat’s, as shown below, and then the total is averaged!

Why did I choose Cleo The Cat, you ask? Well, for one, I do have a cat named Cleo. She is extremely feisty, curious, and highly photogenic. It helps that A LOT of Cozies have fur children in the series. I thought that it would be fun to use Cleo as the mascot.

I mean look at how cute that kitty cat is!!! How can you not want to rate with her?! The only thing that would make her cuter is if she had a bow!

Characters is the first category that I rate. If the main protagonist isn’t likable I don’t care how much potential the story has, I can’t get into it. I have to feel close to the characters, like they can be my friends.

The Whodunit is the next category. Was the author actually able to fool me to a reasonable degree on who the antagonist/killer was? If they were they would get 4 Cleo’s. For how many mysteries have read it is sometimes hard for an author to trick me or lead me astray. I love it when they can!

Relationships is the third category that I rate. This is the relationship or romance that is within the story line. I love the secondary characters just as much or sometimes more than the main character. If there are not well written and drawn out relationships within the series then it is not worth reading to me.

Series is the fourth category. There are two different ways that I rate with this. If it is the first book in the series than I would rate this as whether or not I am going to want to continue with the series. If I am in the middle of the series I will rate it to the degree in which the series is progressing. Is it getting better? Are the characters growing?

Punniness is the last category. I know, I know, Punniness technically isn’t a word. BUT it is a word to me. One of the reasons why I picked up Cozies in the first place are the amazing titles. Curiosity Thrilled the Cat?! Meet Your Baker?! A Killer Read?!? Yes, this is amazing. I am buying a book by its cover and title. You do too. Don’t tell me you don’t. I want to see how fun and funny a series is.

Hey my lovely Cozy Companions! I hope you are having an amazing day! I am currently waiting for the work day to really start. I woke up this morning super spacey! I only have the urge to drink a hot beverage, not talk to another human, and read a good book. HA! Alas, I that will have to wait!

This is the BEST month of the year! Why? You may ask? Well, for one, it is March Mystery Madness! I hope you are attacking your ever-growing TBRs, because I am! We’ve got this! BUT it is also Middle Grade March! As a teacher I taught 5th grade and eventually 7th and 8th. I have loved getting my students into reading. Falling in love with new worlds, escaping into Hogwarts or to Narnia. I thought that it would be fitting to mix the two Readathons! So, without further ado, here are my Top 5 Cozies/Mysteries for kids!

Deepdean School for Girls, 1934. When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up their very own deadly secret detective agency, they struggle to find any truly exciting mysteries to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia’s missing tie. Which they don’t, really.)

But then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym. She thinks it must all have been a terrible accident – but when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. Now the girls know a murder must have taken place . . . and there’s more than one person at Deepdean with a motive.

Now Hazel and Daisy not only have a murder to solve: they have to prove a murder happened in the first place. Determined to get to the bottom of the crime before the killer strikes again (and before the police can get there first, naturally), Hazel and Daisy must hunt for evidence, spy on their suspects and use all the cunning, scheming and intuition they can muster. But will they succeed? And can their friendship stand the test?

Kyle Keeley is the class clown, popular with most kids, (if not the teachers), and an ardent fan of all games: board games, word games, and particularly video games. His hero, Luigi Lemoncello, the most notorious and creative game maker in the world, just so happens to be the genius behind the building of the new town library.

Lucky Kyle wins a coveted spot to be one of the first 12 kids in the library for an overnight of fun, food, and lots and lots of games. But when morning comes, the doors remain locked. Kyle and the other winners must solve every clue and every secret puzzle to find the hidden escape route. And the stakes are very high.

In this cross between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and A Night in the Museum, Agatha Award winner Chris Grabenstein uses rib-tickling humor to create the perfect tale for his quirky characters. Old fans and new readers will become enthralled with the crafty twists and turns of this ultimate library experience.

A hidden book. A found cipher. A game begins…
Twelve-year-old Emily is on the move again. Her family is relocating to San Francisco, home of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, creator of the online sensation Book Scavenger, a game where books are hidden all over the country and clues to find them are revealed through puzzles.

But Emily soon learns that Griswold has been attacked and is in a coma, and no one knows anything about the epic new game he had been poised to launch. Then Emily and her new friend James discover an odd book, which they come to believe is from Griswold and leads to a valuable prize. But there are others on the hunt for this book, and Emily and James must race to solve the puzzles Griswold left behind before Griswold’s attackers make them their next target.

A hilarious Southern debut with the kind of characters you meet once in a lifetime

Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone’s business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she’s been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her “upstream mother,” she’s found a home with the Colonel–a café owner with a forgotten past of his own–and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with every bit of her strong will and tough attitude. So when a lawman comes to town asking about a murder, Mo and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, set out to uncover the truth in hopes of saving the only family Mo has ever known.

Full of wisdom, humor, and grit, this timeless yarn will melt the heart of even the sternest Yankee.

When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in . . .

For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.

Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest, most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.

Set in a city stalked by spectres, The Screaming Staircase is the first in a chilling new series full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts. Your nights will never be the same again . . .

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As I have STATED many many times I have a slight weakness for Baking Mysteries, Food Mysteries, Wine Mysteries, and so on. Okay, okay, maybe not a SLIGHT weakness…a huge giant weakness for them. I love that I can get my sugar fix basically without any calories. I love that I learn about new recipes. I love that the authors love baking and cooking as much as I do. I have tried so many different recipes from my favorite authors, that I thought that I should go ahead and do a WHOLE blog and video on the different Cooking Cozies I read.Top 5| Cooking Cozies Video

Friday there will also be a blog about baking and a video about a Cooking with Cozies inspired Baking Box. So stay tuned! If you aren’t subscribed to my Youtube channel you should be! So, without further ado here are MY favorite Cozies that have cooking, baking, and food in it!

Bakeshop Mystery Series By: Ellie Alexander The Bakeshop Mystery series revolves around an amazing mother and daughter duo, Helen and Juliet Capshaw. They own the amazing Torte bakery.
Juliet has come home from being on the high sea for the past ten years and she is finally seeing what she has been missing when she moves home to Ashland, Oregon.
Of course things start out a bit rocky like a ship on rough water when a well-known, but not well liked supporter of the Shakespeare Festival is killed.
Jules makes it her job to figure out the ‘whodunit’, but can she do it without getting sunk?

Magical Bakeshop Mystery Series By: Katie Lightfoot The Magical Bakeshop Mystery following Katie Lightfoot, her Aunt Lucy and Uncle Ben, in the amazing Honeybee Bakery in Savannah, Georgia. The bake shop is named after Lucy’s cat Honeybee.
This is such a fun and quirky Cozy Mystery series. Katie has quit her job and has moved to Savannah to follow her life long dream of opening a bakery and getting to make edible art for a living. She is so excited to be spending time with her Aunt and Uncle and settling into her new life.
No one ever said that the life of a business owner was easy though. There are always going to be people who you can’t please. Not everyone will be able eat a sweet and change their sour demeanor. But Katie never thought that she would have to lose a customer in such a tasteless way.
After the customer leaves in a huff she was murdered, leaving the main suspect to be Katie’s Uncle Ben. Katie makes it her goal to figure out what happened so that the police’s over baked ideas don’t burn her Uncle.

Peridale Cafe Mystery Series By: Agatha FrostI found this Cozy Mystery series on my Kindle when I signed up for Kindle Unlimited on Amazon. The books are normally .99 cents to $2.99. But they are free on Kindle Unlimited.
This series is based in Peridale, London and follows one of my favorite families I have ever had the pleasure of reading about. Julia South has moved back home from London after finding that her husband is a lying cheating man.
She has opened her very own bakery and couldn’t be happier. She thought that her life was going to be sweets, talk, and peppermint licorice tea. She was incredibly shocked to find a dead body in her cafe however, the town’s most awkward citizen. And the new Detective Inspector doesn’t want Julia to put her nose into the investigation. He under estimated her ability to talk to others in town and getting herself into trouble. Jules is going to find the killer and bake a damn good chocolate cake.

A Chocolate Covered Mystery Series By: Kathy Aarons Growing up my best friend Breann and I have always wanted to own our own bookstore. Heck, it is still a dream to this day. We’ve always wanted to share our love for literature, comics, and bookish goodies with everyone that we can get in contact with. I know what you’re thinking, “Courtny, why are you talking about this? You should be talking about the Cozy Mystery series.” Well, I am leading up to it! Gosh!
The Chocolate Covered Mystery series by Kathy Aarons is Friendship Goals. Seriously. I live vicariously through best friends Michelle Serrano and Erica Russell. They have combined their bookstore and chocolate store into heaven. Seriously. If you ask me, NOTHING is better than a great cup of joe, a piece of chocolate cake, and an amazing book.
To celebrate the combining of their store they are hosting the towns Great Fudge Cook-Off during their Memorial Day weekend Arts Festival. Things are off to a great start! Everyone is super excited for the judging and even the local photographer is excited to capture this fun and amazing weekend!
However, it seems like the photographer has taken her last picture when she is found dead in Chocolate and Chapters apparently poisoned by Michelle’s chocolates. Is their dream of owning their own store crumbling like a cookie? Will they be able to whip up the killer and get the shop back on the right foot? Go check it out!

A Coffeehouse Mystery series By: Cleo CoyleThis series really does amplify my love for coffee and also my desire to learn. This isn’t just any old Cozy Mystery. Nope. Cleo Coyle has extensive knowledge about the coffee process. From the ground in which they come from, the place, the soil, the process of getting them to the perfect flavor, and more.
I swear when I started reading her series this past summer I drank an extra cup of coffee everyday…maybe two extra cups!
This series follows Clare Cozi and her life as the Manager of the renowned Village Blend. She has been asked, by her ex-mother in law to come back to the city and help run the shop.
Even though Clare wants nothing to do with her ex-husband she can’t say no. She will be closer to her daughter who is starting her first year in college and it helps that Madame is letting her life in the plush and exquisite apartment on top of the coffee-house!
Clare has started moving her things into the apartment upstairs one more and finds the coffee-house not shut down the way it should have been the previous night. As she investigates she finds her night manager murdered, coffee beans scattered everywhere, but no sign of forced entry. Two night cops deem this unfortunate death to be an accident. Clare however does not believe this to be an accident. She thinks that her manager was murdered and that she might be next.
This is such a fun series! Not only is there amazing coffee recipes inside the book but there are also food recipes! This is one of my favorite Cozy Mystery series that I have read. I highly suggest it!

All of these reviews are of my own opinion. I have not been paid to talk about any of these books or authors. I think they are all amazing authors and series. The links to the 1st book in all of the series are affiliate links, I do receive a SMALL commission from them. If that makes you uncomfortable don’t feel like you have to use them.

Hey hey you guys! I hope that you are having a stupendous week! I know I am! Here in Oklahoma the weather is driving me insane! One minute it is below freezing and the next it’s almost 70°F. My allergies would SURE LOVE IT if the weather decided to make up it’s mind! How’s the weather where you are at? Let me live vicariously through you!

I don’t know about you but I am LOVING making these Top 5 Cozies blogs/videos! They are so much fun to try and find books and series that match up with the theme I have chosen. That is one of the things I love about the Cozy Mystery genre. There are so many different themes, places, animals, and elements that go into the different types of mysteries that you find within this sub-genre of Cozy Mysteries.

One of my MOST favorite themes/subjects to read about in a Cozy are books themselves. This could be a person that is a librarian as the protagonist, a book club, or even an author. I love it when the characters have the same love and passions as myself. Today I am bringing you my Top 5 Cozies that are Bookish Themed.

One of my most favorite Cozy Mystery series would have to be A Magical Cats Mysteryseries By: Sofie Kelly. This series, starting with Curiosity Thrilled The Cat, gives me everything that I need when it comes to a library fix and kitty cat needs.

Kathleen Paulson is leaving her live in Boston to help breath life back into Mayville Heights’ Library which has seen better days. You follow her on her journey of forgetting her past and living for th present. She is trying to become the happy person that she knows she can be.

She didn’t know that with this new start to her life that she would be adopting some fiesty and very humanlike cats, Hercules and Owen. She might have bitten off more than she can chew when she comes to the realization that her cats have powers that are beyond those of jumping from great heights and landing one all fours, or having nine lives.

That isn’t all murder seems to become part of her life, where in the first book she finds herself as a prime suspect. With the help of her fine felines she tries to prove her innocence.

This is such a fun series. I love watching Kathleen grow into her new home, making friends, falling in love, and seeing her make decisions that need to be made in the face of danger. I love how when she is working in the library she really does try and get everyone the book that is best for them. She is changing the way that the library is viewed and people are flocking to it. Makes my dream of owning a bookstore or being a librarian even more powerful.

She also writers under Sofie Ryan, Pam Whitty, and Karen Davidson.

The next book series is A Black Cat Bookshop Mystery by: Ali Brandon, the first book is Double Books for Death. This series is based inside a bookshop. And AMAZING bookshop, by the way. Darla Pettistone is tired of her life in Texas, all of the southern expectations of a girl have pushed her over the edge. When her Great-Aunt Dee has past away and left her New York Bookshop to Darla she is ready to high tail it out of Texas.

As the new owner of Pettistone’s Fine Books Darla is bound and determined to show that she can run the shop and make it successful. Even when it comes to dealing with prima-donna authors who think that they are better then the average peon. However, since the author is the hottest, most popular Young Adult writer at the time Darla is willing to look past her shirtiness and have her at the shop for a signing.

It seems that karma has reared its ugly head at the affluent author when she is killed in what appears to be an accident. However, the police seem to be looking into the wrong clues. Hamlet, Darla’s Aunt Dee’s shop cat, who is more well read then most adults, finds a clue to point at the fact that the author wasn’t killed in an accident, that it was premeditated.

This is such a fun series to read. I have read the first 3 and have the 4th one in my TBR pile for this year. I will have to say that Hamlet is actually my favorite character. It is highly unlikly to like a side character more than the main character, but he is just so sassy and puts Darla in her place that it cracks me up everytime.

She writes under other names, such as, Dian A.S. Stuckart, Alexa Smart, and Anna Gerard.

Another sub-genre of the Bookish themes that I love readng are Book Club Mysteries. One of my favorites would have to be An Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery Series by: Erike Chase. The first book in the series is A Killer Read. I love how the author mixes a mystery bookclub into a Cozy Mystery series. It is like a world within a world. I know that if I ever found myself in the middle of a murder investigation that I might act like some of the members of the book club. There are so many different types of people in the club, which I love. Teenagers, teachers, high socialites, middle class, upper class, lower class. They all join each other every meeting and talk about the book that someone from the club had chosen. I LOVE IT!

Another reason why I love this series so much is that I can relate to the main character’s occupation, Lizzie Turner is a reading specialist for her school district. As a teacher, I can relate to a lot of the things that she talks about during her work day. She also tries to tutor the students who are at risk for dropping out and not graduating. She is a girl of my own heart.

Other than the fact that I love this character as a real person. I love how the book club gets pulled into a real murder mystery during their first meeting as the Ashston Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straw Society at Molly Mathew’s Southern Mansion. A stranger shows up asking to use the telephone. Molly, and her Southern Manners, obliges. After hearing arguing on the phone, the book club pretends to be interested in other things as the stranger leaves.

Later the strangers body is found with a very interesting clue, an antique pistol that belonged to Molly’s late husband. This puts her as the prime suspect. Molly, who is like a mother to Lizzie, is questioned. Lizzie cannot allow this to happen. She can’t lose another parent…the plot thickens as Lizzie finds a manuscript in her mailbox sheding light on something in the Mathew’s past.

This is such a fun series. I have read the whole series and have loved it. Apparently Erika Chase also writes under the name Linda Wiken and writes the Dinner Club Mystery Series.

Another series, that I can’t put down is A Booktown Mystery series, by: Lorna Barrett. There are 12 books in this series starting with, Murder is Binding. Stoneham, New Hampshire is the home of the Booktown. Stoneham was hit pretty hard with resession and needed a new make over. The owner of the town’s main street decided to make Stoneham a tourist destination by having bookshops of all different genres up and down both sides of the street.

This is perfect for Tricia Miles, owner of Haven’t Got a Clue, it is a wonder place to find a great mystery to read! Tricia loves it in Stoneham. Away from the busy city and the past that she is trying to forget. She is met with welcoming faces, fun competition, and the challenge of running her very first business.

However, a fellow bookshop owner, Doris Gleason is found murdered in her own Cook Book Shop with a knife sticking out of her body. Being the newcomer, Tricia is looked at as the killer. “To clear her name, Tricia will have to take a page out of one of her own mysteries-and hunt down someone who isn’t killing by the book.”

This is such a fun series, I love all of the chararacters including Tricia’s sister Angelica. Watching their relationship grow throughout the books has been so much fun!

Lorna Barrett also writes under the pen names, L.L. Bartlett and Lorraine Bartlett.

And last, but certainly not least is the Cozy Mystery Bookclub book of the month for February, Lending A Paw, by Laurie Cass. This is part of A Bookmoblie Cat Mystery Series.

I will admit, that I haven’t finished this book yet! But I am super excited about it. Has anyone else ever had the dream of opening their own book store *RAISES HAND HIGH*? My best friend, Bre, and I were talking about opening up a Bookmobile in our home town. Maybe a lending library or something along those lines. That way we can dip our feet in the book owner’s water and see what we think. I can’t wait to dive more into this book and see what that might be like!

Minnie Hamilton is our protagonist and librarian in the tourist town of Chilson, Michigan. She is starting out her maiden voyage of the bookmoblie. However, she will not be going at it alone. Try and she might Minnie can’t seem to shake her rescue cat, Eddie, from joining her. It looks like she has a copilot, whether she wants one or not!

She believes that the day is going out pretty well! People are enjoying the ease and convience of the bookmobile. Thinking that their day is over she heads to her last stop. Eddie darts out of the van and straight into a dead body. Minie believes that she is going to leave the crime stopping to the local police, but Eddie seems to turn up evidence that points to murder. “Together, they’ll work to find the killer–because a good librarian always knows when justice is overdue.”

I am super excited to finish reading this book. I just know I’ll love it, I already have the first four in the series!